Monday, October 31

Is Painting Dead?

Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes

Is painting dead? When you Google those words, you get pages
of hits, so there obviously has been some discussion on the subject. October 31st
being All Hallows Eve, I think this is an appropriate topic to blog about.

I wonder why and how this topic started and why it doesn’t
seem to go away. I’m guessing it’s because there hasn’t been any real painting
movement or trend that I’m aware of to take hold since Pop Art in the 1960s. Before
then, you had identifiable genres in painting, such as Cubism and Abstract
Expressionism, that lasted a generation or two. It is interesting to note that they were asking this same question when photography was invented in the mid-19th century.

Of course, there has been new art expression since the 1960s, such as the Young British Artists of the 1990s and the current interest in all things contemporary and performance art, but that's not classical painting.

The art supply industry is like any
other that innovates new and better products. Oil paint that can be
cleaned up with water and slow-drying acrylic paint are a couple of new things that have recently been introduced. Obviously it's not the paint manufacturers that keep this idea alive.

Some discussion points to a waning interest
in painting. Have degree-granting institutions of art really
seen a decline in interest, and therefore, reduced the number of painting
courses offered? Art schools and art associations in my area still
seem to offer plenty of courses in all kinds of painting.

In the 21st century art and painting, along with
everything else, especially communications, is advancing faster than you can keep
up with it. The digitization of art and painting is the new thing these days.
With Wacom Tablets ™ and Adobe Photoshop ™ you can create just about any kind
of painting, effect, and technique.Will these technological tools permanently replace
the paintbrush?

Is painting dead? I don’t think so. It would be like saying drawing or any
art made by human hand is dead. As Mark
Twain famously said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

I just think we’re in a period of waiting on the next big thing,
even if it’s just a revival of classical painting.